During a recent appearance on Rock History Music, Jeff’ Skunk’ Baxter unveiled Ringo Starr’s psychic abilities, supported by evidence.
Recalling one of his time in the studio together with Starr, Baxter said:
“At the beginning of the session, he [Starr] said, ‘You know, Skunk, I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to get interrupted, and you’re probably going to get a call from the Pentagon.’ And I said, ‘Well, okay. I mean, all right,’ but so away we go. Half an hour into the session, my pager goes off, and literally 30 seconds later, two guys in black suits walk into the studio and say, ‘We gotta go.'”
Starr’s Response To The Studio Interruption
He continued, reflecting on the Beatles drummer’s reaction:
“Ringo’s laughing. He says, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. Do what you got to do. We’ll finish it at another time.’ I don’t know how he knew. I mean, he knew that I had another career, but I just thought that was… First of all, it was pressing it. It was almost like being able to be a fortune teller, look in the future but he saw it not as a problem but just saw it as a part of the deal. ‘Okay, yeah, guys, black suits, black SUVs. Okay, great. We’ll going to be back there after tomorrow to finish it.'”
Baxter’s View On Competition In The Industry
The guitarist contributed to Ringo’s tenth and eleventh studio albums, ‘Time Takes Time’ and ‘Vertical Man,’ which were both released in the 1990s. As a session musician who worked with many notable names, Baxter has been compared with other artists in his long-term career, another well-known session musician, Steve Lukather, being one of them. Speaking on the competition between him and Lukather in a 2022 chat with Mitch Lafon, the rocker said:
“Well, there is always competition in the sense that a thousand people are trying to get that one spot, which I think is good. It weeds out the chaff and creates a situation where only the best get the job, frankly.”
He added the following about the rivalry among the different session musicians:
“As far as competition between players, myself, Tim May, Luke, Jay Graydon, and Mitch Holder, we all did the sessions. Not really. There is always the thing at the back of your mind that you always want to be 110%. But no, as a matter of fact, it was a community. It was a close-knit and a tribe of studio loonies.”
The guitarist hit the road in the Fall of 2023 with his ace band to promote tracks from his 2022 debut solo album, ‘Speed Of Heat.’ The tour ended in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, on November 19.
You can watch the rest of his interview below.
